If Eastern Europe needs a queen, Edita Gruberová would surely do very nicely. The Slovak-born soprano has the confectionery looks, certainly the regal demeanour, and the charmed distance from reality. She'll sing through anything in sight and memory, even those items that perhaps at her age - her debut was in 1968 - wisdom says she should not. That's certainly what happened in this extraordinary recital.

You need girlish sparkle? Out it comes in Mozart's Susanna aria Un moto di gioia, its jewellery most carefully polished. Testing interval leaps of ninths and tenths? Let's be damned and sing Schubert's Shepherd on the Rock. Since slithering chromatics require the most accurate pitch, throw in Strauss lieder. And then the ultimate test, the coloratura showpieces scraping the extremities - Dell'Acqua's Villanelle, for example. Maybe, for an encore; could she, dare she? She could. She did. All the doubts fell away as she trilled and swooped with a command of pitch, quicksilver phrasing, and breath control that would have brought down the house in someone 30 years younger. What vitamins does she take? How has she retained even 75 per cent of that distinctive voice - cream puff on the outside, piping piccolo in the centre? Some of her juices come, I'm sure, from being in public, on the stage.

In truth we needed that final dazzle. For her earlier progress had been erratic. The gentler her dynamics, the slower the speeds, the more her pitches needed extra fine-tuning; Strauss proved particularly uncomfortable. Depth of feeling, in Schubert especially, was often a casualty; if you're tip-toeing around your vocal cords, maybe there's no time to scour your heart. The shallower sufferings of Dvorák's Op 83 Love Songs suited her much better.

At the piano, Stephan Matthias Lademann had his stolid moments, but generally gave adequate support; Andrew Marriner's clarinet, in for Schubert's Rock, gave more. But there was only one star, with a perfect coiffure, in a golden dress, and a voice and will that show no sign of retiring.

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